Hundreds Protest in Cleveland:

Judge Lets Cop Walk in Murder of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams

May 25, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Michael Brelo, a Cleveland cop, was pronounced not guilty on May 23 by Judge John O’Donnell. Brelo was one of about 100 Cleveland area cops who, on November 29, 2012, pursued the car Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams were in after cops heard the car backfire and claimed shots had been fired at police headquarters in downtown Cleveland. (See “137 Shots—The Whole Damned System Is Guilty! Cleveland Judge Lets Cop Involved in Murder of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams Walk!” by Carl Dix).

After the verdict came down, people gathered outside the IN-Justice Center and spoke bitterly about this outrageous verdict. Malissa Williams’ cousin bitterly denounced the savage killing by 13 cops shooting 137 shots at her cousin and Timothy Russell. With tears she said that her cousin was a good person and no one deserves to be murdered and the cops are given no punishment. She yelled out, “We want justice!” A Black union activist said how the decision just shows how this system considers Black people worthless and this has been true from when we were dragged here from Africa and called for fighting back against this injustice.

From noon into the night several hundred of people, mostly Black and young, marched for miles, blocking a major highway in both directions, blocking intersections, marching to Progressive Field where the Cleveland Indians were having a baseball game. Protesters went through a club and restaurant district chanting, carrying a huge Stolen Lives banner for all to see. About 100 marched from the Just-Us Center to join a march of hundreds for Tamir Rice at Cudell Center, where he was murdered by police and still no charges after six months.

Even though the mayor has gone on and on about how the police will not come down on peaceful protest, hundreds of police were out in riot gear, with horses, blockades, and more. Dozens of people have been arrested, including a media person and a legal observer for National Lawyers Guild.

Through the day into the night, there was a deep expression of outrage and hatred against the police for killing again and again and then walking, and for most people in the city this was a case of legal lynching. There was a deep determination that we are building a movement to stop the police murdering our people and for some being drawn to the movement for revolution that the RCP is building.

There is urgent work to do.

 

 

Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution

Send us your comments.

If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.